Potentially discriminatory extra time exam rules?

[Aleiha]

Just really wanted to sense check this.

DD is at a top ranking University and is entitled to extra time in exams due to having a disability. This is not disputed by the University which has given her 25% extra time. This is also what she had during A levels and GCSEs.

She is studying an essay based subject (history) and has had her first exam today and discovered that the university have extended the four hour exam to five hours. This is fine but they have applied the extra time to all students sitting the exam. This includes those with a disability and those without. The rationale from the university is that those who don't need the extra time won't use it and those who do need it can then use it.

Its a online open book exam (two essays) and so clearly everyone will use the extra time.

Is this a correct application of the rules? My understanding was that the extra time is supposed to alleviate any disadvantage she suffers due to her disability.

I posted a rant earlier in your thread about how I now teach more students with reasonable adjustments than without. I think you're getting a hard time from a few people on here because they don't fully understand how the reasonable adjustment system has been devalued over the years. At the end I said there's a small number of students who get lost in the system. I think your daughter is one of these and should take this up because she's entitled to perform at the same level as other students and giving everyone 5 hours continues to put her at a disadvantage.

But with a rigid system there were always going to be people who "just missed out" on the extra time and were then further disadvantaged. (A bit like the whole holding children back a year if they are august birthdays). It just creates a new inequality somewhere

It makes far more sense to me for universities to just expand the extra time to everyone on a "use it if you need it" basis.

Lots of the info on this thread is wrong re school exams overseen by JCQ. For people coming across this thread in the future, the guidelines have been recently updated and are here:
https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/JCQ-AARA-2025-March-26.pdf

It is the job of the school - specifically the SENCO - to gather the evidence and make the judgement about whether the pupil shld be awarded extra time. Even for those with an EHCP, the SENCO still has to make a judgement based on need and evidence. And that evidence has to come from work done in school both with and without extra time, and what the student’s normal way of working is.

Parents can wave around outside private, paid for assessments as much as they want, but the SENCO shld be making their own judgement and it is their name that goes on the form to JCQ, not some private ed psych.

The headteacher a PP mentioned above who was complaining about the number of pupils in his school with extra time should be looking to his SENCO not to parents.

Other access arrangements like rest breaks or separate rooms can be decided at a school level. But extra time has to be justified to JCQ.

And just to add, I know the OP’s child is at uni and uni’s are their own judge on access arrangements, but there was a JCQ/school sidetrack I was commenting on.

Many uni’s are giving blanket 25% to all students, Google “Sheffield Hallam extra time”. Unis don’t have the resources to apply extra time for some students etc.

@Toomuchtimeagain Risking being accused of being bitchy .... but .... genuine question: If the exam is meant to take 4 hours, but everyone is given 5 hours, and you say that continues to put OP's daughter at a "disadvantage", then is there any number of hours that all the students could be given that you think would be enough to satisfy everyone's needs? Say, 6 hours, or 10? Or, is it simply a matter of making sure the OP's daughter, and others like her, are given more hours than students without a formal accommodation for extra time? Thanks.

As has been pointed out, you need to have had an EHCP (which requires masses of evidence over several years and is very hard to get) or you must have been tested either by a fully qualified educational psychologist, or someone qualified to assess for access arrangements at level 7 (Masters). You must have two scores that hit the strictly laid-down criteria.

The concept that you just find some random who claims to be a professional and pay them and get whatever extra time you want really is nonsense.

I know you don't need that diagnosis specifically; that was simply one example. To get extra time in exams in universities you need testing from an accredited Educational Psychologist or a professional someone qualified to assess for access arrangements at level 7 (Masters), and you must be able to show two scores that comply with the criteria. Sure, you can pay for testing, what you cannot do is pay for a result that will guarantee you extra time.

You absolutely don’t need that at the university I work at. You can tell someone from student services that you have anxiety or struggle to concentrate and they will write you a pass plan saying you need extra time. Around 50% of students have extra time.

Mine requires documentation - usually external but can be internal if from counselling. Can be from a GP. Dyslexia needs a fuller range of testing, which students have to fund or can have funded (means-testing). This means a student being tested for dyslexia can be stuck for months without some accommodations, waiting.

Back before things were done this way, we used to have a surprising amount of difficulty ensuring that students with a temporary issue, like say a broken arm, got the appropriate accommodations. And of course they are available for physical problems like fibromyalgia, spinal injuries etc, so not just in the realm of educational psychology.

As I posted, this isn’t correct. As per JCQ’s guidance, you can get extra time without an EHCP and without going through the standardised scores route. Standardised scores and a Form 8 are only required under the learning difficulties without an EHCP route. Those applications made for other disabilities do not require standardised scores and a Form 8.

EHCPs do not require evidence over several years. That is a myth some LAs like to perpetuate.

I’m talking about A level and lower, not universities, since you mention EHCPs.

I agree completely with this.

It's a genuine question to a genuinely difficult problem in HE. More and more us academics are being expected to manage huge numbers of reasonable adjustments granted by non-academics in student support. Any time we try to question things all we get is that we can't disadvantage the students.
The tipping point was reached for me when I questioned disability services about the lack of support for me to manage their recommendations given that they have now decreed that 60% of my students have an adjustment. I know my students and many of those could cope without extra time or a separate room and cope well. There's probably about 10% who would really struggle whatever time they were allocated but theyre not on a level playing field and if we want them to achieve their potential we have to make meaningful adjustments or what's the point in having anything or them even being on the course? Arguably it's more relevant for timed exams but why do you need an extra week when you've already had three months to write your essay. Students get an extra week but I don't get any longer to mark their work and when 60% are submitting a week late I have much less time to mark.
I also think with so many adjustments we're setting people up to fail when we release them into the real world but I could never say that out loud. I teach on courses that lead to professional qualifications and have, heartless bitch that I am, reduced students to tears by telling them that they won't get this level of support and accommodation in their first job. Not being allowed to ask students a question or expect them to read out loud in front of people because it's too stressful and you're training for a career where you need precisely those skills! Your manager won't care that you had an extra week at university, they'll want their report when they asked for it. See, you've made me go all ranty again!

@Toomuchtimeagain if any of my students submit a week late then they get their mark a week after everyone else. I set up a separate submission point and tell them to expect it three weeks after that submission point date.

It’s actually got so bad at my university that they’ve stopped doing learning support plans unless very exceptional reasons. They’ve just said that academics shouldn’t need a learning support plan to be in place in order to make reasonable adjustments for a student. We can just use our own judgement I think. And seeing as there doesn’t need to be any sort of diagnosis then we just do what a student tells us they want/need/fancy now.

Not allowed to do that where I work. Everyone must receive feedback on the same day.

That makes sense, otherwise submitting late really is an unfair advantage if you get to see what the best and worst essays looked like and where people went wrong (assuming classmates will show you!)

It’s actually got so bad at my university that they’ve stopped doing learning support plans unless very exceptional reasons.

@JulietteHasAGun at my place around 35% of students has an individual learning plan/ outline of adjustments (some of them not reasonable for my discipline, actually). We are moving towards a kind of "universal curriculum design" which is based on assuming all students have learning disabilities.

Because apparently our student services staff are under terrible pressure and threats to their mental health. They told us ( a group of academics) with utterly straight faces ...

Solidarity @Toomuchtimeagain

Your place sounds like mine ...

@Aleiha My son is a 1st yr History undergraduate as well and these timed essays are new to him outside the context of an A level exam for instance.

He went to see his supervisor and asked how best to prepare for them in practical terms. The supervisor was very instructive and helpful.

Can you ask your DD to do similar? Does she have a personal tutor for the module she can also take advice from? It may mean doing some pre-reading and note taking that will save her the time she is spending "searching through source texts" as you described in your OP.

good luck.

Extending inclusion measures to everyone is crazy - but it's totally in keeping with the way the university sector operates.

Well, I am old school and I think that an exam tests what you can do in the time. So if it takes you 5 hours to achieve what others can achieve in 4, you haven’t passed the exam, quite plainly, as it is a test of speed and processing, not just ability. It is ludicrous that this principle has changed.
This is presumably why now almost 50 percent of people get into university, vs about 15 percent of us when I went in the 1990s.

My university does some exams this way, normally the exams and expectations are crafted so a top student could comfortably finish, getting a great mark, in 3hrs or less. There are often limits on word count or number of pages, they wouldn't get a high mark for just getting extra facts onto the paper.

We aren't testing how well they perform under time pressure, we are seeing how well they can structure work, express ideas, create a narrative etc. 5hrs will give everyone enough time, your DD shouldn't be feeling too pressured.

I think that removing the time pressure gives a better idea of how good a student is, if they don't know something or lack skills they aren't going to benefit from extra time. It's hard if we remember the panic of finishing on time, it's hard to relate, but once you've sat one exam where you get to the "I've done everything I can" point, it makes more sense.

History essays at undergrad level tend to be about critiquing the argument of the historians, not about memorizing facts. That's more GCSE level History.

Thing is what benefits one person, may disadvantage others.

Dd was doing her uni exams over covid.
In year 2, they had 24 hour exams. She struggles with timing in exams (but has never been tested for extra time, looking back I should probably have asked for this). She loved the 24 hours exams - she was working constantly for 16-18 hours for each exam and scraped a first in her 2nd year exams.
In year 3, they reverted to 3 hour exams, and she struggled. She got a 2:2 in the 3rd year which thankfully evened out at a 2:1.

Her flatmate, doing the same subject hated 24 hour exams. She found it really hard to concentrate for more than 2-3 hours, at a time and needed a few hours break before she could go back. She got a third in the 2nd year exams, even though dd said she was far batter naturally.
In the 3rd year she did really well and got a good1st, again evening out at a 2:1 overall.

They said that if they'd done two lots of 24 hour exams, dd would probably have got a first, and her friend would have got a 2:2 at best. If they'd done only 3 hour exams it would probably have been the other way round.

So whatever you do will suit some people, and not suit others.
I'd say though that the majority of people will find concentrating for more than 3 hours at a time difficult and I suspect many will choose to wind up after 3 hours.